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Staff Reporter
The July 6 voting to select the lineup for the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) leadership will be between a managerial leader and the reformative one.
Fourth-term lawmaker Chung Sye-kyun, 58, who is widely viewed as a leader with strong managerial skills, is expected to make a bid for the party chairman post.
Third-term lawmaker Choo Mi-ae, 50, a female reformative figure, will challenge Chung's leadership ambition.
Earlier, incumbent Party Co-Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu said he would not run for the position to take responsibility for the April 9 election results.
Chung, a former chairman of the Uri Party, a predecessor of the UDP, is a moderate, liberal leader. He enjoys wide support from all factions inside the party.
The main opposition party won 81 parliamentary seats out of 299 in the April 9 elections. The figure was considered a de facto defeat as more than 200 lawmakers-elect are conservatives.
``I do not think 81 lawmakers is too small a number to lead legislative moves in parliament. In my experience, we could achieve many things with them,'' he said in an interview.
The former Uri Party chairman said that the opposition parties currently have no clear vision and are just trying to hold back the ruling party, and this will lose support from the general public.
Chung said his position on the free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States was conditional approval, meaning that he would approve it once the government maps out effective adjustment programs for farmers and other victims.
His likable counterpart Choo is a third-term lawmaker who successfully made her parliamentary bid in the April 9 election in Gwangjin, Seoul after she lost in the 2004 election.
With an impressive victory, she is one of a few UDP lawmakers who survived the election in the capital.
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) swept the Seoul campaigns, winning 40 parliamentary seats among 48.
Choo, a reformative politician, said the urgent task facing the UDP was to reunite liberals so that it could transform itself into a small but effective opposition party.
She said a poor campaign was responsible for the party's loss of supporters in Seoul. Choo also said the UDP should not be a small party representing the narrow interests of a particular region (referring to the southwestern Jeolla Provinces).
A recent poll said Choo led the UDP race with 23.7 percent of the popular vote among citizens, followed by Chun Jung-bae (10.2 percent) and Chung (7.3 percent).
Political observers said it is not fair to say Choo has more of a chance to win the race than other candidates, as the UDP has not decided the details of the voting yet.
Chun said in a recent interview that he has yet to decide whether or not to run for the party leadership.
hkang@koreatimes.co.kr
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